Patrick Gavin of ReviewMe, the site caught selling reviews on Consumerist’s sister-site Lifehacker, as well as BoingBoing and MAKE, has responded via IM. In short, he claims that there was a loophole in the site that allowed people to submit sites that weren’t theirs…

Patrick: hey meghan its Patrick Gavin from ReviewMe/Text-Link-Ads
Meghann Marco: Hi there.
Patrick: just left a comment on your post
Patrick: my apologies
Patrick: basically we had a loophole where publishers could submit a site that was not theirs
Meghann Marco: I see.
Patrick: it got listed but no advertiser money was taken bc a review would have to have been completed on the said site
Patrick: again it was stupid on our part a mistake but not malicious
Patrick: we are fixing it as we speak and again sorry for the confusion
Meghann Marco: Can you explain why money was taken for a review on Lifehacker?
Patrick: yes
Patrick: money is not taken at checkout, an advertiser’s credit card is pre approved
Patrick: it is only charged on completed reviews that we have to approve
Patrick: so i am assuming that was the case with that one, that the advertiser did go through checkout, their card was pre approved, but then the review was never completed obviously
Patrick: as it would have had to be completed on lifehacker
Meghann Marco: Ok, that makes sense. Would it be ok to post from this chat?
Patrick: definitely and thx for listening
Meghann Marco: No problem. Thanks for the information. We appreciate it.

Don’t know about Patrick but we would have noticed if we suddenly got the right to shill review space on Lifehacker, BoingBoing and MAKE. That’s just us, though. What do we know about marketing? Anyhow, the mystery is solved. —MEGHANN MARCO

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